1and1 cgi problems - 500 internal error on all cgi calls

[saucysal]

Ours was back up at 4.00 pm Thursday

We are back-up. In the meantime we have signed up with another host, with another domain name, have cloned our site by licencing another Actinic site and importing a snapshot of the first site. Only problem now is getting the ftp settings on Actinic to work right. Once that is sorted we'll have that site to fall back on if the same thing happens again. So we have learnt something.

Now today brings another problem - PayPal appears to be down this morning - can't login. Orders are down this morning, which may possibly be a spin-off from yesterday's outage, or could be because PayPal isn't working.

Sarah

[chris ashdown]

Sarah

Do you have your domain registered at the 1&1 as well as the site, if so you would be better moving the domain register to someone like 123reg so that in a emergency you can just redirect the domain to another server and it will probably be online in about 4-6 hours

If you have both at the same ISP you are unable to change as their who site will normally be down

[saucysal]

No, what I did was . .

I signed up with fatcow.com, paying for a year, which included a free domain. I created a brand new domain name with them. There was no name server stuff to be transferred anywhere, so it was instant. It really was instant. So once I get the settings right in Actinic, I can have two identical sites up but with different domain names (just the extension is different), so if the main one is down I can divert/re-direct to the other. In the case of yesterday's problem, 1&1 login was down, so could not put a redirect in place via the settings with them, I would have had to put the redirect on my site. With previous cases where my website was down (very rare and brief), the whole site was down so a redirect on the website would not have been possible, so as long as 1&1 isn't down at the same time, I would be able to put the redirect in place via them. Does that make sense?

Sarah

[Mike Hughes]

I'm not so sure this is going to work the way you want. If your main host/webserver is down where is the redirect going to come from?

The usual approach is to host the domain at 123-reg (or similar). Then you can just point it to another host if your main one goes down.

Mike

[guccij]

I can have two identical sites up but with different domain names (just the extension is different), so if the main one is down I can divert/re-direct to the other.

There could be a problem with duplicate content - Google is said to frown on this.

[Darren B]

Having read through this thread i find it amazing at how distressed a number of you are with the fact your sites are down and the amount of sales you might be losing and all the costs involved yet you are still happy to bumble along "hoping this wont happen again"

Sorry if thats the level of support you can expect or willing to accept and this is an important part of your business then to me you have made the wrong choice of host or made a poor business decision IMHO.

If its that important then be prepared to pay a little more than a cheap shared hosting package. If you want good support and uptime then you need to be prepared to pay for it especially if this is your main source of income. Look at VPS solutions for a cheaper alternative to a dedicated server.

Things do go wrong with all hosts, but its how it is dealt with and the impact on your business which should be key to making any decision.

[guccij]

If its that important then be prepared to pay a little more than a cheap shared hosting package.

Darren, it affected all levels of 1and1 hosting. We're on Professional - not exactly cheap at £24.99 + VAT a month.

And while yesterday was horrible while it lasted, it is the first time in 8 years for us that there has been downtime of this nature with 1and1.

As it is, 1and1 have offered compensation. I imagine this will be in the form of free hosting for a time. Not enough, but something.

Also, as soon as the scripts were fixed and our sites were stable, we sent out an email newsletter to 9000 subscribers - which we were going to send yesterday anyway before we realised the site was borked. Anyway, as a result, we have had the busiest day so far this year, more than making up for yesterday's losses. 52% conversion rate ain't bad ...

[Darren B]

I understand what your saying, but i think i have seen more complaints about 1&1 in the last six months than i probably have in the last 6 years.

My point was, if your online business is that critical then you need to fully understand what your going to get if it goes wrong. If your happy then by all means stay put, if your not then you need to decide what is right.

Putting a critical business on a shared hosting option would be a definate no in my books. Ask any host who gets priority when something goes wrong.

But as i said if it suits your business model and your happy then go for it, i was merely trying to draw peoples attention to the bigger picture.

[Darren B]

Darren, it affected all levels of 1and1 hosting. We're on Professional - not exactly cheap at £24.99 + VAT a month.

Whats cheap and whats not is a personal decision IMHO if my whole business depended on my ecommerce then £30 p/m is cheap if i have a few sales or small amount of income through my ecommerce then £30 p/m is not cheap.

[malbro]

As it is, 1and1 have offered compensation. I imagine this will be in the form of free hosting for a time. Not enough, but something.

Did you get an explanation, so far I am being fobbed off, this is the first problem I have had with them in over four years but an explanation would be a start in revuilding confidence.

[guccij]

No, no explanation but that's because I couldn't be bothered to ask. I do find that they respond quite quickly to emails sent to support at 1and1. co. uk so maybe it's worth another shot.

I have looked at alternatives over the years, the latest being UKFast. Got fed up with them after 15 minutes of sales pitch. I hate sales calls. Couldn't answer basic questions, very defensive, all I want is a fecking price. Couldn't give it to me.

Edit - well blow me down with a feather. UKFast just called again. On an ex-directory number. Which they didn't get from us. That's them firmly crossed off the list.

[leehack]

Did you get an explanation, so far I am being fobbed off, this is the first problem I have had with them in over four years but an explanation would be a start in revuilding confidence.

Malcolm, i fully understand the feeling when you've been taken offline, it's an awful feeling, but you gotta be realistic too. In your own words this is the first problem you've had in 1461 days and it only lasted for about 0.5 day. That's one hell of a record, why would it be enough for you to lose any confidence at all? Realism is every bit as important as expectation.

[malbro]

That's one hell of a record, why would it be enough for you to lose any confidence at all? Realism is every bit as important as expectation.

I realise that record is still good, uptime is still above 99.99%, my issue is with the scale of the problem, and the lack of feedback. An email from 1and1 support today saying that they checked the servers today and there is no problem leaves me feeling fobbed off, if they explained what they did to cause the problem I would feel a lot better about their support.

[Darren B]

Does anyone here use an external monitoring service for their websites?

You might find some interesting results about the real uptime of a server, remember a server might be up but for 100's of other reasons your site might not be visable on the internet.

There are a few companies offering monitoring services if you want to know when it goes down. From free every hour checks that send an email to 5min checks that will text you as soon as something goes wrong.

If you dont want to waste money on adwords or other ppc systems or just want to know your site is online its definately worth a look http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=web..._en-GB___GB315

I have used host tracker plus some others in the past, i can tell you its a real eye opener.

[chris ashdown]

No, no explanation but that's because I couldn't be bothered to ask. I do find that they respond quite quickly to emails sent to support at 1and1. co. uk so maybe it's worth another shot.

I have looked at alternatives over the years, the latest being UKFast. Got fed up with them after 15 minutes of sales pitch. I hate sales calls. Couldn't answer basic questions, very defensive, all I want is a fecking price. Couldn't give it to me.

Edit - well blow me down with a feather. UKFast just called again. On an ex-directory number. Which they didn't get from us. That's them firmly crossed off the list.

Jules

Sounds like a very sales oriented salesman, but try this, call them back and ask for their support number, give it a ring, I bet it's answered in under 15 second by a engineer who has full control of your dedicated server and can solve most if not all problems, I have only had to call them about three times and each time answered in under six or eight rings ( all calls related to my problems not theirs)